Knife + Heart

Though it boasts a fairly compelling opening stretch, Knife + Heart, which details the chaos that ensues after a masked killer begins knocking off the cast and crew of a porn company, is eventually thwarted by filmmaker Yann Gonzalez’s excessively avant-garde sensibilities and an emphasis on a progressively tedious narrative. The movie’s downfall is especially disappointing given the strength of the first act, as Gonzalez does an effective job of establishing a thoroughly stylish (and appreciatively bloody) environment populated by a far-from-standard assortment of oddball characters. It does become clear awfully quickly, though, that said characters are ultimately given few attributes beyond their most superficial, which does, naturally, make it more and more difficult to work up any interest in or enthusiasm for their ongoing exploits. The progressively uninvolving atmosphere is compounded by an investigation-focused second half that couldn’t possibly be less engaging, with this portion of the proceedings’ often extraordinarily tedious nature compounded by an eye-rollingly arty climax that ensures the whole thing ends with a pronounced whimper – thus cemented Knife + Heart‘s place as an entirely ineffectual spin on the familiar slasher genre.

* out of ****